HAPPY (VERY BELATED) NEW YEAR! Looking over my blog, I’m ashamed to see that I’ve made fewer than ten posts so far. I’ve been so busy on this huge adventure at UBC that I’ve forgotten to take a break once in a while and actually document it, so one of my New Year’s resolutions is to make at least ten more posts before the end of April!

Last Tuesday night, I visited Downtown Eastside for the first time. Having grown up in one of the ‘safest’ cities in the world, it was a completely new experience for me to see entire streets lined with homeless people. Even though I wasn’t there alone – my RA, Desiree, was there with a huge group of residents – I still felt slightly nervous. We were there to volunteer at Beauty Night Society, an organization which offers free services like makeovers, healthcare and personal development to women living in poverty.

Three other volunteers and I were assigned to give the women hand massages, something which none of us had ever done before. Luckily, the beauty of Beauty Night is that the volunteers don’t need to be professional makeup artists or masseuses: its main objective is to improve the women’s self esteem and self respect by treating them just like one should treat any other human being, with care and respect. Talking to the women at the shelter was an extremely valuable and eye-opening experience for me. There’s such a strong negative stigma surrounding addicts and the homeless; people on buses, trains, even on streets, often tend to avert their eyes or edge away from homeless people. Some people openly mock them or call them “scary” or “weird”. As one of my friends said, addicts are people too, and they deserve to be treated with respect and dignity.

Don’t forget to be awesome,

Olivia

PS: Those who want to get involved with Beauty Night Society can easily do so – you can visit their website for more information, and attend a mandatory orientation (the next one is on January 27th). There are also plenty of other volunteering opportunities both on campus and around Vancouver – and, if you live on rez, you could talk to your RA about organizing a volunteer group for your house, as our lovely RA Desiree did.